Tetris player and commentator, cchristm, organized a meetup at Wanderlust Creamery, which was in walking distance from the venue. He called the event, Ice Cream with Blue Scuti’s Grandpa.
I walked over to Wanderlust Creamery along with a few other people. I ended up chatting with Karin Cox (Blue Scuti’s mom) on our way to the ice cream place as we were guiding the rest of the people there. We talked about the documentary, “Blue Scuti: Tetris Crasher”, which had just been available on Amazon Prime through the Wonder Project subscription about a week before.
I watched the documentary and thought it was okay. Legendary Entertainment was the media company that made the documentary. Karin brought up that this was the company’s first time making a documentary, so they will end up making a better documentary next time having learned from their experience with making the Blue Scuti documentary.
When we got to the Wanderlust Creamery, I watched the other players decide what to order so that I could figure out what to get. You could get free samples to decide what flavor to get, but I also wanted to figure out how many scoops to get.
I went with the Palo Santo Mint Chip, because I like Mint Ice Cream. I went with the Double Scoop quantity after seeing a few players receive their ice cream.
While we were eating, someone pulled out their phone to watch the qualifying round that was happening. We were rooting for Zrobot, a 10-year old Tetris prodigy who had gotten so much better at Tetris since last year.
When we finished our ice cream, we walked back to the venue. Karin and I led the way back.
More Tetris Action
When we were back at the venue, the qualifying session was still going on. I watched as players went for Tetrises deep into the Killscreen, scoring points far beyond a million points.
Zrobot, Meme, and Blue Scuti sealed their spot in the Gold Bracket. While aGameScout was in the running for either Silver or Bronze Bracket.
With the Friday Qualifying sessions over, it was time for the Tetris: The Grand Master 4 (TGM 4) tournament. Since this was a sponsored event, I decided to stick around to support the sponsor.
By the time the TGM4 Tournament Finals was going to start, it was getting late at night and I wanted to get some sleep so that I can show up early tomorrow.
When I was waiting for the bus to get back to where I was staying, it turned out that other Tetris players were taking the same bus. While I had plans to sleep for the rest of the night, the other Tetris players were going to the movie theater to see “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act”.
Eventually, I made it back to my place.
Reflecting On The Day
This was my third year at the Classic Tetris World Championship. I was happy with how I could casually talk to other players without feeling nervous. It was like meeting old friends again, even if you see them chatting on Discord many times.
When I was disappointed with my qualifying performance, I knew I had very little chance of making the Bronze Bracket. For the most part, I did not let that affect my joy with being at the tournament.
I signed a few people’s posters. I interacted with a few players.
Muffyio was thanking me for giving him directions on how to use LAX Flyaway to get Downtown Los Angeles from LAX. We talked about our website. Muffyio mentioned how he founded the website, nestris.org, because nobody else claimed that domain.
I also met Jonathan (boleejindo), who was here for the first time. He recognized me right away from this website. Turns out, he read my articles about my experience at last year’s CTWC. That helped him know the process for arriving at your assigned qualifying session.
Anyways, I went to sleep so that I can show up early the next day.
